Soldier4Christ
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« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2007, 12:07:18 PM » |
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'War tax' plan a non-starter for Bush 'We think that that is just a standard reaction by the Democrats'
A Democratic proposal for a "war tax" to pay for operations in Iraq is a non-starter at the White House, according to presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino.
"We made it clear the other day that the president won't support a war tax, we don't think it's necessary," she said.
Her answer was in response to a question from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, who asked for Bush's opinion of a plan by U.S. Rep. David Obey to establish "a surtax to pay for Iraqi military operations."
"And we think that that is just a standard reaction by the Democrats when they want to raise taxes," Perino said.
Obey's proposal, which was joined by U.S. Reps. Jack Murtha and Jim McGovern, would establish a two percent surtax for the lowest wage earners in the nation, up to a 15 percent surcharge for the highest brackets.
Their hopes were that it would raise up to $150 billion annually.
The Iraq expenses "will result in draining the Treasury so dry that it will result in systematic disinvestment of America's future," Obey has said. But analysts noted that the Bush request for fiscal 2008 for defense is 20.1 percent of federal outlays, still below the 21.6 percent when Bill Clinton was elected.
In a second question, Kinsolving raised the issue of a California proposal to apportion electoral votes by congressional district, which could give a Republican nominee up to 20 of the state's 55 electoral votes, which in recent years have been granted exclusively to the Democrat nominee.
"The president supports this proposal for minority rights, doesn't he?" Kinsolving asked.
"I haven't asked him about it," Perino said. "..I'll see. If I see him I'll ask him."
New reports indicate the effort may have been dropped for this election cycle. The New York Times said several key supporters have left the campaign and there's a shortage of money to keep the effort running at this point.
The plan would have needed several hundred thousand signatures on petitions before the end of November in order to be placed on the 2008 June ballot, official said.
Maine has allocated its electoral votes based on the popular vote in each congressional district since 1972, and Nebraska has done the same since 1996. But the California proposal raised eyebrows among Democrats who charged it was a power grab by Republicans.
That's because the Democrat candidate has gotten all 55 California votes for the last four presidential elections, even though 19 of the state's 53 congressional districts are held by Republicans.
It even earned a recent blog diatribe by singer-actress Barbra Streisand:
"The dirty and secretive tricks that have characterized the Republican Party in recent years are still here to stay," she wrote under the headline: "Republican Attempt to Steal California's Votes."
She warned such a move "would essentially give the next Republican presidential candidate as many as 19 additional votes – almost equal to all the electoral votes from Ohio and nearly all from Florida!"
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